Frequently Asked Questions

1. How old is the Reformed Episcopal Church? We began in 1873, and came out of what was at that time called The Protestant Episcopal Church and is today called The Episcopal Church USA (or just ECUSA).

2. Why haven’t I heard of you? The Reformed Episcopal Church is often stated to be the best kept secret in the Christian world. We are a small denomination, having about 15,000 members, but we are growing. You may not have heard of us because our churches are sparse west of the Mississippi River, though now increasing.

3. What are your churches like? We are generally considered a low church (not a lot of ritual), very evangelical, heirs of the English Reformation, friendly, and committed with enthusiasm to the faith. We are not ashamed to believe in the Virgin Birth, the Holy Trinity, the substitutionary death of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, His bodily resurrection, and His Second Coming (see under Beliefs on the left side of your screen).

4. Who may join your churches? Anyone who believes the faith (see under Beliefs on the left side of your screen).

5. Aren’t Episcopal churches basically Roman Catholic? We hear this often from those who do not understand the heritage of the Anglicans in England. All Anglicans—and Episcopalians are basically Anglicans—are heirs of the Protestant Reformation in England. Several of the English Protestant Reformers were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church, which obviously means we have some differences! No, we are not Roman Catholic in some ways, and yet all Christians share some beliefs with the Roman Catholic Church. With the Roman Catholic Church, we believe the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, which means we both hold to the Trinity, the incarnation of God the Son, and so forth. With most Protestants, we also recognize the baptism of the Roman Catholic Church, not requiring converts to us from Roman Catholicism to be re-baptized. And like the Roman Catholic Church, we also read a lot of prayers from a book, called the Book of Common Prayer, but the prayers may or may not be the same with the Roman Catholic Church. We also have what some would say “ritual” in our worship services, but we would just call it liturgy. Also, like the Roman Catholic Church, we can trace our history back to the apostles (apostolic succession).

Some differences we have are as follows: We do not pray to Mary or to any of the saints. We do not believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper literally become the body and blood of Jesus. Also, we give both the bread and the wine to the congregation, not just the bread. We believe that salvation is a free gift, not to be earned by good works, indulgences, or the constant saying of the Rosary. We do not believe that the pope is the head of the Church but that belongs only to Christ. We do not believe that Mary is the queen of heaven. We do not believe in purgatory. We believe that only the Bible is infallible, not the pope or the church in its councils. We do not teach anything as necessary for salvation unless it is found in the Bible, which means we reject tradition as an equal source of revelation from God. We only believe in two sacraments that the Lord gave for the Gospel: baptism and the Lord’s Supper, not the seven of Rome. We use the common language of the people in our services, not Latin.

Yet we are not willing to say that the Roman Catholic Church is completely apostate. There are true believers in her. I was asked recently if there will be Reformed Episcopalians in heaven, and the answer is the same for all denominations that hold to the ancient creeds: there will be some there who were formerly Reformed Episcopal, formerly Roman Catholic, formerly Presbyterian, and so forth. In heaven, there will only be Christians.

6. Where did Anglicans or Episcopalians come from? Some think that we began with Henry the Eight in the fifteenth century, but that is emphatically wrong. We can trace our bishops back to the apostles (apostolic succession). There are three branches of Christianity that can trace themselves back to the apostles: Eastern Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church, and Anglicans or Episcopalians. The Reformed Episcopal Church was formed out of American Anglicans in 1873, called at that time the Protestant Episcopal Church.

7. What races are represented in the Reformed Episcopal Church? About 30% of the Reformed Episcopal Church is African American, primarily in North and South Carolina. We welcome all races if they can believe the Christian faith. We have found that the cure for the race problem in America is the grace answer of God. We have people from many races, and our missionaries are in many countries around the world. Race is not an issue with us, but grace is an issue. We don’t care what color one is as long as he/she believes the faith.

8. Do you have women ministers? We highly respect women, but we do not have them as ordained ministers. We have deaconesses who are not ordained. For 2,000 years all branches of Christianity have understood that there are role differences in the relationship of the sexes, and consequently that God has given men the office of pastor, not women. It was not until the rise of feminism in the twentieth century that anyone thought differently. This is not male dominance but God’s legislative roles. Another way to put it is men are not better than women, but God has given us different roles. Here are just a few reasons we do not accept women’s ordination. (1) There are specific prohibitions against women ministers in 1 Timothy 3, where we see one qualification to be a minister is that one must be the husband of one wife. One cannot be a husband in the biblical sense unless he is male. (2) It is contrary to the whole history of the Church for 2,000 years, and even today most do not accept it. (3) God requires the man to be the head of the home (Eph 5:22ff). If the woman minister is the head of the family at church, it is in conflict with what God has established. Indeed, it is especially at church that the man’s headship is to be exercised. Paul stated: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man but to be in silence” (1 Tim 2:11-12). And this is not a universal principle applied to all levels of society (a woman can be the governor of a state), but one that specifically applies to the church, as the context makes clear. Again, Paul by the Holy Spirit states: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church” (1 Cor 14:34-35). The infallible written word of God overrules all man-made ideas and cultural whims that are here today and gone tomorrow.